Chinas Century of Humiliation

Nicholas Lima
Mr. Politelli
Eastern civilization
December 2 2012
Chinas Century of HumiliationChina had thousands of years of greatness to only be shamefully humiliated in what is called Chinas century of humiliation. The years of humiliation all began during the Opium wars and the treaties of Nanking that led into the Sino-Japanese war, and even into World War II. From 1840 to 1850 the rise of opium smuggling and the treaties of Nanking had led to the beginning of the humiliation and led up to the Japanese taking control of Manchuria in the Manchurian incident in 1931. There are many instances in the century of humiliation that contributed to china’s shame but three of these instances did the most to further them to their long unfortunate humiliation that spanned a century.

The First and one of the most major incidents that contributed to Chinas century of humiliation would be the combination of the Opium war, and the unequal treaty, which is also known as the treaty of Nanking. During the opium war, which lasted from 1839 to 1842, the Chinese tried to fight off the British, who were using opium as a trading currency and creating a large drug problem within china, while the war lasted just around three years the Chinese were no match for the firepower of both the army and navy that the British had during those times. After the humiliating defeats china was forced to sign the treaty of Nanking which stated “The treaty called for four more ports to be opened to trade--- Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. The island of Hong Kong was given to Britain. Finally, China gave Britain ‘Most Favored Nation’ Status.”, What that meant was that Britain would have access to any rights that china gives to other foreign countries in the future. This treaty was used as an advantage by The United States and France as a chance to insert themselves into China and open trade with them through treaties, much like Britain did. The ports that were opened to trade, the people...

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